Academics:
SAT I–1490 (pending results for June SAT)
ACT–29 (Definitely going to retake)
Weighted GPA–103.566
Unweighted GPA–About a 3.9
Ranking–9/624
SAT II–800 (Math II) yay!!!, 750 (Biology E) yay!, 740 (Chemistry) Still a pretty good score lol.
AP’s–5 (Calculus BC), 3 (World History). Pending results for May 2017.
Projected Senior Year Course Load–AP Government, AP Lit, AP Comp Science, Differential Equations, AP Physics 2, and Studio Art II.
Awards: 2 County Math Awards, Top 10 BNL Bridge Building, Honor Roll, DECA States Top 10, DECA Regionals Top 16, FBLA Regional Top 5, Presidential Service Award.
Extracurriculars:
Math Team President, Active DECA competitor, French Honor Society
Job/Work Experience: Conducting neuroscience research at my local university.
Volunteer Experience: Finished 100 hours at local hospital. Going to radiology for a new volunteer role.
Writing:
Essay–I believe that my essay was written with passion for an unusual hobby that I have taken to the next level: pen spinning. I created an instagram and website dedicated to pen spinning. I talk about my passion for pen spinning and how much it has influenced my work ethic. (btw, I also really love physics and enveloped physics into my posts about pen spinning)
Art Supplement–I will send an art portfolio of the artwork I have done the past couple of years. I have been seriously drawing, painting and doing art since I was 8.
Other:
Will I Apply for Financial Aid? Yes.
State: New York
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket Range: 90K
Hooks: Strong Passion for Pen Spinning, Dedication to Art and Drawing
I think that University of Illinois is a match school for me. I also considered University of Michigan, which is definitely a reach school.
Those are not hooks , as hooks are “what colleges need” . Pen spinning is an unusual hobby that allows you to stand out… Except these colleges aren’t that holistic they mostly care about GPA x scores. Unique ECs will matter for the Honors college as well as LACs such as Earlham, Grinnell, Beloit, Carleton. I would urge you to apply there (+ honors colleges).
What major will you apply for?
Where are you instate and where’s OOS?
Have you run the NPC on these three universities and brought the results to your parents?
You have similar stats to me and I was accepted into Penn State Univ Park. However, I declined admissions pretty quickly because the cost of attendance for OOS is ridiculous. Penn State is sort of well known for admitting a very high amount of OOS students solely because they pay a ton. Your income bracket is not low enough nor high enough in my opinion to afford PSU. My family’s income is ~100k, our FAFSA EFC at 26k~ and Penn State gave us a grand total of 5k in loans. No grants or scholarships. Literally just the maximum available loans for us.
I don’t mean to dash your hopes for PSU but I’m just warning you that if accepted, the COA will very possibly be insane.
I’m not really shooting for those colleges tho. The private universities are pretty expensive. How would you rate my chances for SBU? It’s in state at least. Maybe SBU would be a high match or a low reach.
Run the net price calculator on private universities including out of state.
Williams, Case Western, Harvey Mudd, RPI, Northwestern are all really good for Math students and meet 100% need. They may end up cheaper than your state school and they’re all elite.
Psu, uiuc, Wisconsin: None of these universities will give you financial aid.
For Math, Stony Brook, Buffalo, and Bing are very good and should be free tuition with the Excelsior scholarship.
If you want to go OOS apply to universities with significant merit aid: UTD (collegiumV, AES), UMN Twin Cities (CLA has several math majors), Iowa State, tOSU, Indiana University. Apply as soon as the application is up, pay attention to your essays.
Idk about those elite schools(a valedictorian I know of barely got into RPI) but I think Bing, Buffalo and Stony Brook would be good choices. Also, thanks for mentioning the scholarship. I wasn’t familiar with it. Also, do you happen to know when the applications for those colleges will come up? Like which month?
Being valedictorian doesn’t matter to most colleges. What matters is the overall profile. Yours is good. You have the stats, an academic strength in math which is reflected in your EC’s and classes, and an unusual hobby. So, you have a shot. Doesn’t mean you will get in - those elite schools are “dream schools” for many people and turn down most applicants. But you have a shot, so why not take it? Run the NPC on all 5 private “elite” universities listed in #9 and pick your favorites.
Whoa thank you for all this info. I’ll do more research into the financial aid, scholarships, programs, locations, and indicators of which school will be the best for me. Much appreciated
Just the updated credentials after AP scores came out today and GPA got updated:
Academics:
Weighted GPA–103.8
Unweighted GPA–About a 3.9
Ranking–9/624
AP’s–Calculus BC (5 with subscore 5 in AB), World History (3), APUSH (5), AP Physics 1 (5), AP Statistics (5), AP English Language and Composition (4).
Projected Senior Year Course Load–AP Government, AP Lit, AP Comp Science, Differential Equations, AP Physics 2, and Studio Art II.
Dang IT! I got lower on the sat (1480) and essay (17) on the June one. The highest score I have for sat is just a 1490 with a 21/24 essay. My chances of getting into honors colleges seem slim now. Being that I’m an asian male, how do my chances look for any college? At least for honors colleges at SUNY’s like SBU?
UWisconsin’s honors college requires you to apply after you’ve been admitted to the university and is based more on motivation, not really Sat scores. In addition, these scores are perfectly fine, especially since you’re not ORM in Wisconsin.
Penn state Schreyer doesn’t even look at your test scores. All that matters is your essays (read by faculty, who essentially look for “do I want this kid in my seminar”), your curriculum rigor (highest rigor with A’s is expected), what major you chose (it’s harder for future engineers than for future Ag majors), and recommendations.
UIUC honors for an Asian male isn’t likeky -possible, but traditional criteria apply there and it’s not like they lack for Asian applicants.
You do have a reasonable shot at SBU honors, although with the excelsior it’s likely to become a more attractive option and thus more competitive.
The best Honors College of the bunch is Schreyer but it’s also likely your most expensive choice.